Validation
by Echante
Summary: On the eve of Derek's marriage to Meredith, he and Addison have a much needed conversation, mark/addison, mer/der.


**Validation**

**Summary: **On the eve of Derek's marriage to Meredith, he and Addison have a much needed conversation. Mer/Der, Mark/Addison

"You invited my ex-wife to my bachelor party?" He groans and pushes his hands into his hair.

"Cheer up." She smirks, "It's been awhile, and you don't have any friends." She tells him.

Burke follows her in, "She's right you know, for a man with hair like yours, you have surprisingly low people skills."

He glares, "My people skills are just fine."

"They really aren't." Mark says, coming up from the wing and kissing Addison on the lips, "Hi honey." She murmurs, but they refrain from making a spectacle.

But Burke and Derek don't refrain from making puking noises.

"Hey!" Mark protests as Addison giggles, "You're both just jealous that I got to bring my girlfriend to this shit-ass bachelor party!"

Addison grabs a beer and swirls the contents calmly, "Although, it seems pointless to be having it because Derek's the only bachelor."

"Richard's coming."

"Oooo" said Addison sarcastically, "good one."

Mark nods in agreement, "Besides," he says, "Richard's only separated, not divorced."

"Shut up!" Derek says, while Mark and Addison laugh, he turns back to Burke, "Why did you invite my ex-wife to my bachelor party?"

Burke opens his mouth but Derek hushes that too, "It's the night before my wedding, you're supposed to be nice to me!"

Addison shrugs from her position on Mark's lap, "You've already been married."

"Yeah." adds Mark, "We don't have to be nice to you twice."

Derek becomes quiet and Addison realizes it was probably the wrong thing to say. But Alex Karev walks in and the moment is almost forgotten, "What the hell dude?" he says, "This is the shittiest bachelor party I've ever seen."

Burke nods in agreement and Mark mumbles 'yeah' but he still has some unresolved anger with him so he doesn't agree wholeheartedly.

The party more or less starts.

* * *

She finds him at the bar, staring blankly at the label of some lager or another, arm pushed way back into his hair.

"Okay." She sighs impatiently, because she knows Derek isn't the kind of person to talk when cajoled, "What's the problem?"

He looks at her, "We were married."

She takes a long sip of her martini and swings her leg over the bar-stool, in the background Mark and Alex argue over a game of darts while Burke watches, "No shit." She tells him.

"I just… the last one ended so… terribly… what am I thinking doing that again?"

She looks long and hard at him and then hits him on the back of his head. "You're a fucking idiot you know that?"

"Hey!" He protested, "What?"

"You're a fucking idiot." She repeats, "Our marriage was nothing like what your marriage is going to be like. Especially the end."

"How do you know that?" He implores.

"Because," she says matter-of-factly, "we fell out of love because we changed."

"What if I change again?"

"You won't." she says certainly.

"How do you know?"

"You're just a whinny little bitch today aren't you!" she exclaims.

"Well…"

She sighs, "Because we weren't the loves of each other's lives. It was… bad timing I guess. When I met you… you were this…" she smiles, "Guitar wielding, longish hair hippy, you were hot, not dreamy… no one would have called you McDreamy… And I was in my wild phase… the thing is… we fell in love during a phase Derek, and you've changed so much, that there were days in our marriage when I looked at you and couldn't even recognize you… We married too young, we were still trying to figure out who we were…" she pauses to take a breath, "Meredith, she compliments the 'you' that you've settled in, just like Mark loves the 'me' that I've become, not the 'me' I was."

"You think it will last?" he asks.

She laughs, "If you don't become the whinny bitch you secretly are… I think it should be fine."

He groans, "You'd think you'd be nicer to me… you just poured your soul out."

"Hey!" she raises both hands and laughs, "I just calmed you down, I don't owe you shit."

He smiles up at her, "Thanks Addy."

She gets up, "No problem."

And he watches her walk away.

* * *

The next day, when he watches his ex-wife and his best-friend sneak into the ceremony half-an-hour late with her hair messed up and lip-stick stains on his collar he only inwardly laughs, no jealousy involved.

Mark had turned down the opportunity to be best-man because he wanted to sit by Addison during the wedding, and as Derek turned his head away from his wife-to-be for half a second to look at his family, the happiness in their faces reflects the happiness in his. And he thinks maybe it was all worth it.


End file.
